Column: SAHS will be thankful for 2004 in '05

JUSTIN BARNEYSports Editor

Published Saturday, December 04, 2004

Unlike last season, the St. Augustine High School football team returned this season with a good amount of expectations.

In 2003, the Yellow Jackets came to the table with more holes than they did plugs. SAHS faced the graduations of nearly 30 seniors and the foundation of the most successful class in program history. The replacements were a handful of kids with potential, and they grew up quickly.

This season, most of those same players turned last year's 7-3, first-round playoff exodus into a distant memory, and made looking ahead to 2005 salivating. With Friday's loss to powerful, prestigious program Jacksonville Bolles, the Yellow Jackets' wacky season ended at 11-1.

I mean, how often are teams forced to miss their first two games due to hurricanes, return rusty and run to just the third unbeaten season in school history? The 1954 and 2002 teams were also perfect. And how often do teams have the luxury of playing four straight playoff games at home? Definitely a season to remember. True, SAHS didn't play the toughest schedule and was pressed into close games when it should've won by five touchdowns. But the Yellow Jackets did things differently this season than they had in the past, and will benefit from it.

Unlike in the past five years when blowouts were the norm, the Yellow Jackets actually had to show up all four quarters and play. In 2002, the year of its last state semifinal trip, SAHS played just three games that were somewhat close. Outside of two losses in 2001, the Yellow Jackets were in two games that were decided by two touchdowns or less. Everything else was a blowout.

In 2004, SAHS learned to not only survive in close games, but win them. Twice against Nease, the Yellow Jackets came back from a deficit. In SAHS' 33-30 win over the Panthers on Oct. 1, the Yellow Jackets scored the final 19 points, all inside the game's final 15 minutes. Against a 2-8 Palatka team that SAHS should've beaten by 40, the Yellow Jackets trailed 19-17 in the last two minutes before rallying on the final drive.

Having covered the Yellow Jackets the last three years, those rallies rarely occurred. Normally when SAHS fell behind, it was lights out for the Yellow Jackets. But SAHS did it differently all season. The traditional Wing-T evolved into a new-age offense that relied on the pass just as much as the run. That addition made SAHS that much tougher to defend, and put the Yellow Jackets a year ahead of schedule. The bulk of those players that took their lumps in 2003 and matured quickly will return in 2005. Brandon James, Jacques Rickerson, Carlos Hamilton, Quintin Hancock, Rai-shawn Wilson. ... There will be losses across the board, but SAHS has absorbed graduation better than most teams. And the wacky season of 2004 will go a long way in 2005.